New Neighbour
by BookWorm77071
Summary: After the most miserable moving experience in the history of mankind, a new horror hits. Bagpipes. In the middle of the night. Lily's on the warpath. Short and fluffy AU!


**A/N: So I found this in my Drive. I wrote this for Liv's birthday about a year ago, and I never posted it on ff!**

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Lily couldn't believe her ears when she woke up at three o'clock in the morning to bagpipes.

That didn't happen in real life. That didn't even happen in _books._ That happened only on telly. And it was a really bad cliché.

She had been up all day since five, because the bloody moving company refused to have her things delivered at a normal hour. So she had gotten to her new flat at six, waited half an hour for them to arrive (half an hour past schedule, she might add), only to learn that _sorry_ Miss Evans, we deliver all the boxes separately, and maybe if you had read our website like a normal person, you would've known that.

So Lily was opening and unloading boxes all throughout the livelong day, and when she finished, when she finally, _finally_ finished, and got ready to take a bath, she found out that the stupid plugger did not come with the flat.

Her day had been awful, her bath had been stolen from her dreams, but Lily kept telling herself: _they could not take her sleep._

And now that was exactly what was bloody happening because her stupid, ugly, new neighbour was play the sodding bagpipes at three in the ruddy morning.

Quite horribly, she might add.

Lily angrily got out of bed, nearly tripping on her sheets as she did. She grabbed her robe and wrapped it around herself, and went to give her stupid, ugly, new neighbour a piece of her mind.

Finding the arse's flat wasn't hard; it was the door with the demonic music coming from it.

Lily thudded her fist three times against the door, tapping her foot.

The shrieking stopped, as if the player had paused and tilted its (yes, _its,_ there's no way a human would play the bagpipes at three in the morning!) head. Apparently, whatever was in there decided that there was no knock, because the noise continued after a moment.

Lily banged her hand five times on the door, ready to throw her whole body against it and knock it down.

The racket stopped and Lily heard footsteps. Lily took in a deep breath, ready to shout at her stupid, ugly, new neighbour-and was surprised to find that the man who opened the door wasn't the least bit hideous at all. He looked rather intelligent, too. A little familiar as well-why, just looking at him, Lily felt as though she'd known him for years.

But that didn't matter. Not in the least. Lily didn't care one bit that she thought his smile was the most beautiful thing in the world.

"Can I ask why you thought playing the bagpipes at three in the morning was a good idea?" she asked in what she hoped was a very irritable tone.

He grinned sheepishly. "You must be the new tenant."

"And what has that got to do with anything?" Lily asked, brushing her fingers furiously with her hair, and then pausing at once. Why should _she_ make herself presentable? His hair was a right state; all over the place. He had slightly lopsided glasses covering hazel eyes.

"I was told you weren't coming until tomorrow," he said. "Everyone else on the floor is gone. I never would've played if I had known you were here. I'm so sorry to have woken you."

"Oh," Lily said, faltering. "Well... that's all right."

"I'm practising for a mate's wedding," he explained. "They're both Scottish. I'm honouring them."

"How sweet of you," Lily said, really thinking it. Why did she care what this bloke was playing for? Why didn't she just go back to bed?

For a few moments they both stared at each other, slightly smiling.

"I've got cousins in Scotland," Lily said, after a while.

"I haven't got any cousins," said the man.

"Shame," Lily said. "It's lots of fun."

"I'll bet," he said, not moving his eyes from her face. "I'm James Potter. What's your name?"

"Lily Evans," she said.

He grinned. "Would you like to come in for tea, Lily?"

"Sure, that sounds great," Lily said. "I'm not doing anything."

"Oh, neither am I."

Sleep and bagpipes forgotten, Lily and James walked into his kitchen, and James set the kettle on the stove.

"Where are you moving from?" he asked her.

"Cokeworth," Lily replied. "Have you been here long?"

"I'm a London native, but I've only been in the flat for a year."

Lily nodded, smiling. She didn't feel tired at all. She felt wide awake, more awake than she ever had, and she didn't have the slightest idea why. "So," she said. "Why is everyone else on the floor gone?"

"There's some cruise they all signed up for. We're the youngest on the floor, everyone else is over sixty."

"You lived with-what-a dozen senior neighbours for a whole year? How'd you manage that?"

"I liked it, actually," James said with a smile. "Played a lot of bingo. Ate a lot of oatmeal. Mostly they tried to set me up with their granddaughters."

Lily felt something she suspected was her heart dropping. She nodded.

"I don't have a girl-"

"So which granddaughter-"

After they stared at each other for a few seconds, James was the first to laugh, but Lily followed him shortly after. God, it was just so _easy_ to laugh with him.

"Listen," James said suddenly. "I... You know that wedding I've got?"

"Sure," Lily nodded. "With the Scots."

"Yeah. Well," he said, and chuckled.

"Nothing..." he shook his head, looked at her, and smiled. "I don't have a date to this wedding yet. Will you come with me?"

"Love to," Lily said, not hesitating.

James grinned broadly. Lily grinned back. They just stood there like that, and Lily thought she might stare into his eyes forever, if the kettle hadn't started whistling.

"I'll get that," said James. He poured her a mug. "So... do you want to... listen to the rest of my song?"

Lily nodded enthusiastically. "Love to," she said.

He grinned again, and she saw he had trouble closing his mouth around the bagpipe.

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 **A/N: Reviews are much appreciated!**


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